Rudy Can’t Fail (Or Can He?): Part IV
By Mitch Berg
Two of my favorite regional conservative bloggers take up sides on Giuliani:
If Giuliani can moderate his position and speak in the language that social conservatives understand, I don’t necessarily think that there will be a huge backlash against him from social conservatives. Social conservatives aren’t going to hand the White House to a John Edwards or a Hillary Clinton or a Barack Obama just because they have some issues with Giuliani. Even though some social conservatives might stay home, Giuliani can pick up the libertarian-leaning Republicans, fiscal conservatives, and moderates who abandoned the GOP in the 2006 cycle. So long as there’s more of them then there are Republicans who would never consider Giuliani, he is still very much in the game.
Assuming Giuliani doesn’t flame out sometime in the next year or so which, admittedly, is always a possibility he has a strong chance at picking up the nomination. He’s going to have to have a road-to-Damascus moment on the Second Amendment, but he’s got the time to do so. Giuliani’s greatest asset is that he exudes a sense of leadership — when he’s in the room, there’s no doubt that he’s in charge.
On the other hand, TvM’s Jeff Kouba:
If Giuliani does not unequivocably state he believes abortion is wrong because it ends an unborn human life, period, I don’t see Giuliani ever winning over conservatives on this one.
Giuliani would have to hope he seems tough enough on matters of terrorism and national security for conservatives to give abortion a back seat in the list of priorities.
And the trouble with that is the country is becoming weary of war, with seemingly little obvious progress in Iraq. Conservatives may be prone to want to turn their attentions back home, wash their hands of the world, and focus again on domestic issues. If so, Giuliani will have a tough run for the party’s nomination.
I’m still nowhere close to figuring this one out.
February 6th, 2007 at 10:31 am
I’ve heard it said before, McCain hates the first amendment, Rudy hates the first 10.
I have acquaintances who live in Manhattan and they saw what he did as Mayor to “clean up Manhattan”. They they say that while crime went down, and the streets got supposedly cleaned up, the police were perceived to be stepping out of bounds a lot.
Personally, I think he’s just got too many downsides for me to support him. If he won the nomination, it definitely would be me voting for him because he is “the lesser of two evils, but not by much”.